Modalities

Physicians and their patients can consider a variety of treatment options to best suit their lifestyle. To help ensure physicians can provide their patients with the most flexible options and superior clinical outcomes available, DaVita® is:

In-center dialysis options include traditional hemodialysis, nocturnal dialysis*, and self-care. Home* options include peritoneal dialysis* and home hemodialysis. DaVita offers a wide variety of dialysis modality choices so that physicians and their patients can create the care plan to best fits the patient's health and lifestyle needs today, and make changes seamlessly if their needs change tomorrow.

*Available in select locations nationwide. For more information call 1-866-989-3627.

DaVita home modalities

By choosing DaVita, physicians can offer their patients a broader menu of treatment options and can achieve greater operating flexibility than facility-based dialysis. Medicare has considered the importance of these modalities in their rule-making regarding MCP reimbursement.

Eligible patients may experience many clinical and quality of life advantages of home dialysis, including:

Longer retention of residual renal function (RRF, an important predictor of survival on dialysis)

Peritoneal dialysis

Studies have shown that over a 12-month period, patients who start on peritoneal dialysis (PD) first retained a greater amount of RRF than patients who started on in-center hemodialysis (HD). This is because with daily dialysis, PD more closely mimics the kidney's natural function. Many patients perform peritoneal dialysis at home or at work without assistance. Patients attend monthly multidisciplinary care meetings with their physician and other in-center care team members. They also have 24-hour access to a nurse support line.

Home hemodialysis

Home hemodialysis is typically performed 5 or 6 days per week, avoiding the peaks and troughs of thrice weekly dialysis and thereby maintaining more steady state biochemistry. Patients find it easier to adjust to salt and fluid intake and enjoy a more flexible diet.

Both PD and HHD patients benefit from having the freedom and flexibility to dialyze on their own schedule, morning, noon or night. They typically have more energy, take fewer medications, and are more likely to continue work than in-center patients. Home patients attend monthly multidisciplinary patient care meetings at the center. They also have 24-hour phone access to nurse and biomed support.

Self Care

Self care is an in-center hemodialysis option for patients in transition to home-based dialysis, patients whose home dialysis partner is temporarily unavailable or whose medical condition may make them ineligible for unsupervised dialysis. (Not available in all areas.)

Nocturnal

In-center nocturnal dialysis is performed three times per week overnight. The longer, slower treatments are gentler on the body resulting in clinical benefits for the patients as compared to traditional in-center dialysis. In general, after patients start nocturnal dialysis they have more energy, an improved appetite and take fewer medications. Other benefits include treatments during in-active sleep time, so patients are often able to work during the day.